Aitana Bonmat\u00ed could not even manage a smile. The walk to the podium through an England guard of honour that, while generous in its applause, could still\u00a0barely hold in its euphoria must\u00a0have felt several miles long. She had just been named player of the tournament and it was just about possible to detect a bowing of the head as the award was announced. There were photos to pose for after taking receipt of the trophy and after what had just passed there was simply no point in\u00a0putting on an act.<\/p>\n
In those moments before Bonmat\u00ed shuffled up for her prize, Spain\u2019s players stood motionless, wordless, in the penalty area that had eventually sealed their fate. How had it come to this? It had been\u00a0billed as the rubber-stamping of a golden generation; the night when the world\u2019s best team would\u00a0follow success by reeling off\u00a0more of the same. Everyone knew that Spain routinely performed at\u00a0a level several notches higher than\u00a0the rest. There was nothing to\u00a0do beyond fold the arms and stare blankly.<\/p>\n
Maybe there had been something\u00a0in the Basel water. Earlier in the day, at a Uefa-run forum exploring a range of angles around the women\u2019s game, predictions for the final were sought from several of the speakers and none of them went for the bleeding obvious. England would win, Jill Ellis and Camille Abily claimed. There was no persuading Emma Hayes to commit in either direction. At the time it felt like wishful thinking; a conscious effort to suggest jeopardy where little appeared. But perhaps the experts really did know something, because every chink of weakness Spain have showed this summer ultimately cost them here.<\/p>\n
In the end their cutting edge deserted them when it mattered most, and for those looking closely\u00a0enough the signs had been there. It had required a piece of Bonmat\u00ed magic to see off Germany, who in turn exposed them down the flanks on numerous occasions,\u00a0in their semi-final after several chances were spurned. The taps had certainly begun to trickle after a flow of 16 goals in their opening four games.<\/p>\n
Against England, too, they could have won several times over. By the second period of extra time the Lionesses could, in large part, barely run after being put through a third 120-minute effort in 10 days. Meanwhile Ona Batlle, perhaps the best player on the pitch, was making her latest underlapping run\u00a0to the byline from right-back and watching her cross rebound out\u00a0for another corner. Spain had the shapes, the patterns, the running power and the craft, but none of the certainty that imbues serial winners.<\/p>\n
They will surely rue not adding to Mariona Caldentey\u2019s opening goal, thundered in after characteristically prodigious work from Batlle, in the utterly dominant half-hour that followed. Spain had worked England at will during that spell, Bonmat\u00ed and Alexia Putellas pulling every string, but never quite created the sure thing that would see them home. They soon learned it was too early to kill the game through possession and Alessio Russo\u2019s equaliser suggested a team taking things a touch too easily.<\/p>\n
Spain\u2019s Salma Paralluelo misses a chance under pressure from Jessica Carter and Hannah Hampton. Photograph: Matthias Hangst\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Spain had been their tenacious selves off the ball for most of the night, Patri Guijarro leaving Georgia Stanway in an early heap to demonstrate guts should not be enough for England this time. But their lack of pressure was conspicuous when a simple move through the thirds, its angles hardly dizzying, ended with a Chloe Kelly\u2019s perfect cross and it was a moment of inattention that\u00a0proved critical.<\/p>\n
There will also be regret that Esther Gonz\u00e1lez, another rueful award winner when she received the golden boot, did not score after the group stage. She had early glimpses, while the substitutes Cl\u00e0udia Pina and Salma Paralluelo had their own openings much later, but England\u2019s blend of doggedness and weary, gnarled self-assurance was a barrier too far.<\/p>\n
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